The third act has all the material of tragedy, but the material
is wasted; only the actress makes anything of it. We know how Sullivan
will take a motive of mere farce, such words as the "O Captain Shaw!" of
"Iolanthe," and will write a lovely melody to go with it, fitting his
music to the feeling which the words do but caricature. That is how Miss
Irene Vanbrugh handled Mr. Jones's unshapen material. By the
earnestness, sincerity, sheer nature, power, fire, dignity, and gaiety
of her acting, she made for us a figure which Mr. Jones had not made.
Mr. Jones would set his character in some impossible situation, and Miss
Vanbrugh would make us, for the moment, forget its impossibility. He
would give her a trivial or a grotesque or a vulgar action to do, and
she would do it with distinction. She had force in lightness, a vivid
malice, a magnetic cheerfulness; and she could suffer silently, and be
sincere in a tragedy which had been conceived without sincerity. If
acting could save a play, "The Princess's Nose" would have been saved.
It was not saved.
And the reason is that even the best of actors cannot save a play which
insists on defeating them at every turn.
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